Kansas City, Mo. – The Missouri Southern men's basketball team went into the locker room up six, but a second-half surge by Winona State lifted the Warriors over the Lions 73-68 today inside historic Municipal Auditorium.
Southern (0-2) was led by
Sam Thompson with 16 points in 20 minutes, going 8-of-9 from the free throw line. Tryiqe Jackson scored a career-high 14 points on 6-of-7 from the field, while adding four rebounds and two blocks.
Winston Dessesow scored 12 points and added three assists, while
Parker Long had nine points, seven rebounds and five assists.
Avery Taggart scored eight points, while
Ndongo Ndaw had a team-high eight rebounds.
Winona State (2-0) had 20 points each from Connor Dillon and Connor Drew.
The Warriors raced out to an eight point lead (11-3) with four minutes into the game, but a three from
Christian Bundy and a layup from
Vinson Sigmon Jr. cut the lead to three (11-8) a minute later.
A three from Dessesow with 7:42 left in the first half gave the Lions a 23-20 lead, but the Lions trailed by ten (34-24) with 3:44 left in the half. That's when Southern went to work. The Lions got a dunk from Ndaw and a jumper from Jackson to get within six (34-28) before back-to-back three's from Jackson tied the game at 34. Long hit another three with 32 seconds to go and Dessesow added a three of his own as time expired to give the Lions a 40-34 lead at the break.
A three-point play from Thompson with 16:34 left in the second half kept the Lions' lead at six (45-39) and a pair of freebies from Thompson made the score 47-41 with 15 minutes to go. A jumper from Long gave the Lions their largest lead of the night at seven (50-43), but the Warriors went on a 7-0 run to tie the game at 50.
The teams traded points and leads before a free throw from Dillon gave the Warriors a 64-63 lead and WSU wouldn't look back. The lead reached eight (73-65) before a late three from Taggart was the final tally.
The Lions shot 43 percent from the field, out shooting the Warriors (43%-38%) and had a 30-8 advantage in bench points. Southern forced 12 turnovers and scored 15 points off the miscues.
Southern will be back at it next weekend as the Lions take part in the Pittsburg State Classic. Southern will face off with Illinois-Springfield on Friday night, before facing Quincy on Saturday night. Both games will start at 7:30 pm.
